Broken
by M. Pond
Summary: "He wants to make her smile again." Puck may not always show it but he cares. Set during Laryngitis.


**A/N: I've been going through a load of old half-finished stories I found in a folder on my laptop and I came across this one. I wrote it in an attempt to justify Puck's behaviour in Laryngitis since I was losing hope for Puck and Quinn at the time. I think I originally intended it to be five different moments but I never got round to writing more than the first one. But I read the one I did write and I wanted to share it. **

**It's the first Glee fic I've ever posted on here but I wanted to contribute my own little bit to all the Quick fics out there. **

**It's set during 'Laryngitis' so Quinn is still living with Puck.**

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"_My baby hormones are making me moody."_

They get into his truck after Glee rehearsals and she doesn't say a word; that's the sign that lets him know that it is going to be a long night. She has been getting moodier by the day and there are times he now struggles to remember what she was like before she was pregnant. He had mentioned her newfound moodiness to her once and it had ended with him having a large bruise from where she had flung a biology textbook at his head. So instead he stays quiet and simply lets her stew until the mood passes and she is back to normal, or as close to normal as she can be when 'this damn baby is mistaking my bladder for a bouncy castle.'

But today he wants to try. He can't remember the last time that he made her smile. The spark that was once so commonplace in her eyes has long since faded. Every smile she gives is forced and he is sure that she hasn't laughed properly in weeks. He remembers what it was like before Finn found out and before her world completely crumbled, when it was merely wobbling on shaky foundations. They had laughed; _he _had made her laugh. There had been moments where they had stood together, covered in eggs and flour, when he thought that he had never seen anything as beautiful as the grin that was lighting up her face. There had been moments where they had sat together, as he strummed on a guitar, where her laughter had filled the room as he pulled dorky faces to entertain the three children in front of him. She had looked at him in those moments, looking so damn happy, and they had kept him going as he watched her walk away hand in hand with his best friend.

Now he feels like he's failed because he promised her the world and she's lost everything and he can't even make her smile anymore. He can replay those moments from the past over and over in his head but they're like a video that has become old and worn. They are not as clear anymore and he can't quite remember how her laugh sounded or how bright her smile had been. They are being replaced of memories of him listening to her cry herself to sleep at night or the look of disappointment on her face as a Cheerio walks past her in the hallway.

He wants to make her smile again.

"I got thrown in a dumpster today," he says as he turns onto Leland Avenue.

She doesn't respond to begin with, instead simply staring out of the window, and he wonders if he's putting himself out there for nothing.

"You were?"

It's so quiet that he barely hears her speak and he knows he could pretend that he didn't. She doesn't even turn to face him and if he looks to his right, all he is greeted with is the sight of her long blonde hair.

"Yeah. You didn't hear?"

He regrets the comment as soon as it leaves his mouth. Of course she didn't hear. There was a time when Quinn would have been the first to know something like that but now who would even bother to tell her? He wasn't stupid; he knew that she had gone from Queen Bee to the very bottom of the social ladder. And people weren't exactly going to be rushing to tell the knocked-up former head cheerleader any form of gossip. The gossip was going to be about her.

"I bet you can't guess who did it," he carries on, hoping that she won't register his first comment. But the way she is sat just a little more stiffly lets him know that she did.

A small shrug is all that he gains for his efforts.

"Come on Fabray, you can do better than that."

Silence.

He sighs and continues driving, trying not to feel disappointed that he can barely get her to talk to him.

"Karofsky?"

Her response makes him smile, if only because it means she is actually talking to him.

"Please, that guy wouldn't have the balls to take me on. You've got two more guesses."

"You can't limit me to three guesses! How am I supposed to guess who would throw you into a dumpster out of the thousands of people in our school?"

"Just guess again."

He tries not to notice the way she had changed in only a few seconds. She has turned to face him and the melancholy expression that had been gracing her face has vanished, at least for the moment. He wants to remember how beautiful she looks as the sun casts a glow over her face but he forces himself to tear his eyes away before she notices him staring.

"Um…Azimio?"

"No."

"This is impossible to guess Puck. At least half the school probably wants to see you landing in a dumpster. And that includes the teachers!"

"Shut up," he smirks. "Guess again."

"I don't know!" she says exasperatedly, running a hand through her hair before dropping it onto her rapidly growing bump. "Jacob?"

She says it with a casual shrug and a joking tone but it only takes a moment for her to lock onto his tightened grip on the steering wheel and the way he stares fixedly at the road ahead.

"No!" she says after a minute. "Jacob Israel threw you into a dumpster? Jacob Israel?"

"It wasn't just him," he says, as if that makes it any better. "It was a bunch of his friends too."

And then it happens. He slows and indicates to turn off the main road when he hears it. Her bright laughter fills the cabin and echoes in his ears. He chances a glance over at her and sees the huge smile on her face and the way her head is tilted back as she laughs loudly.

"Ja…Jac…Jacob Israel threw you….you into a dumpster."

Her sentence sets off a whole new round of laughter but he doesn't care one bit. Because seeing her smiling and laughing again is definitely worth him sharing that bit of information. Hell he'd even let Jacob throw him in the dumpster all over again if it meant her laughing like that every day.


End file.
